Wokeness? Meaning?

[grassisjeweled]

Can someone explain in simple English what 'wokeness' means?

It's like being 'right on'...but on acid!

So, too 'right on'? Like OTT right on?

Different people seem to have different meanings...like everyother social word, I suppose.

At first, people used it in a to describe someone who's aware of what's happening/ social injustice, etc in that they are "awake" and no longer blinded/asleep.

Nowadays it's also used to accuse people who are well....showing wokeness and their woke status...like snowflake, virtue-signalling, professionally offended, that type of thing. Depends on the group you're in.

I'm in neither by the way.

It means giving a shit about something other than yourself.

Consciously right on.

So a concerted effort to appear on what you perceive to be the right side of history, in the right group, displaying the right values etc. Like a superficial veneer of morality designed to fit style over substance. Requires no critical thinking or deeply held beliefs, only a willingness to signal your own virtue.

(that's how it's used mostly but agree with pp that it's origins are slightly different. It very rapidly changed).

Boomer has followed an interesting and similar trajectory. They're now loaded terms.

It's what my stepdad would have called 'PC' back in the day. It means you've 'woken up' to inequality and your own privilege. And, just like all those years ago when my steppie used to shake his head at me ranting about racism, sometimes that's a good thing that leads to social change and sometimes its a bad thing that leads to self-righteous twattery, a line I no doubt jumped over many times myself.

*its dyac

It's generally disparaging as far as I'm aware. Being cautious not to offend and ultra PC

It’s just an extreme form of ‘awareness’ of social injustices, such that you consciously allow them permeate everything you do/say/think, and you demand the same of others.

There's a definite sense of superiority with it, that the person knows and understands far more than you do.

So open minded their brain has fallen out

It is just a fad to make some people feel/look good. Idiots.

Ridiculous nonsense trying to run their agenda to control our thinking and attitudes. Most don't care much.

Its being incredibly 'right on' about social injustice, but usually (ironically) using very narrow view points and chosing to ignore any contrary opinion to the point of seemingly losing all critical thinking skills. Usually a mind set of 'good guys vs bad guys'.

@SarahBellam

It means giving a shit about something other than yourself.

It really doesn't.

It is people who care about identity politics and language but not about poverty or human rights.

Ultra PC in old money or very enthusiastic about social justice, like to tell other people about their values, and keen on "calling out" ie attempting to publicly humiliate people with different or less extremely PC values so they are shamed, lose status, votes, customers, jobs etc.

Some are unwilling to listen to other points of view and will shut down debate (eg you're racist, to which a feeble "no I'm not" proves further that you are racist); many are very confident in their own beliefs. They are often (not always) unable to provide evidence or reasoned argument to support their claims, which tend to be quite absolute and
they treat them as fact. This behaviour verges on bullying so other people go along with it because they are afraid of being next in the firing line.

IMO nothing wrong with campaigning for social justice but when the aim is to shut down debate and silence others, I think it's a real danger to democratic civil society and risks extremist backlash which does nothing for the overall aim of making society fairer and more harmonious.

When ive come across it, it means " anti woman" for example the jk Rowling etc

You know the way it used to be a good thing to be politically correct, and then it became "political correctness gorn mad"? It's like that.

It originally meant someone who had woken up to social inequality - so for example, a white person who was aware they had white privilege.

Then it became a term used disparagingly.

On MN, it is most commonly used disparagingly to describe those of us who are happy to treat transwomen as women. This is not necessarily the most common usage in other corners of the internet.

@SarahBellam

It means giving a shit about something other than yourself.

Well yes. Except I have a friend who lives in poverty, POC, child with disabilities. She gets shut out of conversations all the time because her language isn't woke enough and white woke twats want to police her more than they want to support her.

I went with her to a free health thing and she tried to fill out the form and about one minute in said "what the fuck are they asking?". I just rolled my eyes and told her what word-soup, nonsense description she needed to tick to get help.

Sometimes it's just a competition to see who's most woke rather than an actual desire to support everyone in a way that works.

@Stripesnomore

It is people who care about identity politics and language but not about poverty or human rights.

Yes identity politics are central. Rarely boring old-skool issues such as global inequalities in distribution of wealth, poverty among children or the elderly, homelessness, low pay for women (or misogyny generally) domestic violence, discrimination based on age, class or disability.

The idea is that they’re woken up to social injustice and are aware/ ‘woke’. In reality it’s their minds are so open their brains are falling out. Especially in terms of women’s and children’s rights, in their wokeness, they actually advocate for social injustice.

Its being incredibly 'right on' about social injustice, but usually (ironically) using very narrow view points and chosing to ignore any contrary opinion to the point of seemingly losing all critical thinking skills
This.

It's usually the sort of attitudes and behaviours exhibited by privileged, university students who are desperate to feel special so instead of caring about all the very real forms of inequality and campaigning for meaningful change in those areas, they sit on social media retweeting something about identity politics.

Woke people care more about their ego and presenting themselves as woke than they do about tackling pressing and difficult issues.

It's usually the sort of attitudes and behaviours exhibited by privileged, university students who are desperate to feel special so instead of caring about all the very real forms of inequality and campaigning for meaningful change in those areas, they sit on social media retweeting something about identity politics.

Yes, very much so. The sort of people (usually white, usually heterosexual) who have BLM in their handles, but do not see that they're 'All Lives Matter' when it comes to women's rights.

It’s a lazy insult when you can’t be bothered to engage in discussion about the actual issues.